Diamond Arrow
by The Uncreative
Summary: Sequel to Scarlet Wind. Scarlet and friends investigate a town where a magical girl is abusing her powers and causing some problems.
1. Chapter 1: That's who we're looking for?

**Author Notes:**

Hey, we're back! Alright, for anyone who's just joining us this is a sequel to Scarlet Wind so it might be a good idea to go back and read that one first. You don't have to, we go over all the important stuff in this chapter and the story stands on its own pretty well. You can probably read this without reading Scarlet Wind. I'm not the person to ask about that though.

Not a whole lot happened this chapter, it was more of a introductory chapter to set up what's going on, why these three people are together and so on. Of these three characters, I think Madoka is the one I'm having the most fun writing. I was a bit worried at first because she's the only one from the original series to show up and I was worried I wasn't going to get her personality right, but then I remembered I don't really need to. See, if you didn't read the first story or perhaps didn't quite catch it, this story takes place a little over a year after Walpurgisnacht destroyed Mitakihara. Madoka's has been alone for that entire time, and has quite a few stories to tell about what she was doing during that time. As a result of all those adventures, she's changed a little bit and seen quite a few things. I'm going to have fun writing her.

Anyway, we'll talk more next chapter when more plot important things and characters are introduced. See you then!

**Chapter 1: "That's who we're looking for?"**

"This is this town?" I ask.

"That's what I heard from Kyubey," my pink haired companion tells me. "Morioh, the city where a magical girl is using her abilities a bit too much."

"Um… what can she do, exactly?" my little girl asks, tightening her grip on my hand.

"Last I heard from Kyubey, she can turn normal humans into magical girls."

"You know, I think the little rat mentioned that to me once," I say.

"Kyubey didn't tell me anything else about her, so we just need to keep an eye out for other magical girls. Once we see one, we can just ask them if they're the girl we're looking for."

"Is that so? I don't think they'd be that cooperative," I reply.

"If we're nice and polite to them, they'll be nice to us," she tells me.

"Nothing is ever that easy," my little girl says.

"Whether it's easy or not, we probably should start looking around town," I say. "It would certainly help to know where exactly we are, right?"

"Great idea!" my little girl says.

"That sounds like a fine idea."

"Okay then. I suppose the first thing we should do is find where we'll be staying during our time here."

***Line Break***

So, you're probably wondering who I am. Realistically you probably don't care, but that previous line allows me to move into introductions a lot easier, so allow me to pretend that you care. Anyway, my name is Scarlet and I'm… Twelve years old, I think. I have short blonde hair, have red eyes, I happen to also like the color red, and it's been a little over a month since I've last eaten anyone's neck like I was some kind of vampire monster. Also, no, that's not _really_ my name, but it's what I choose to go by. I'm technically a rookie magical girl. I've been a magical girl for a little over a year, but about a month ago I woke up with no memories so all that experience doesn't mean much. After I woke up, wondering why I wasn't dead, I made a bunch of friends. Their names were Inugami, Yagami, Inko, Yukari and Yoko. With the exception of Yukari, they're all dead now. We ran into some trouble with a somewhat mean magical girl group all of whom, barring one, are now dead. It wasn't a very fun time for any of us. After I dealt with that whole situation I met my little girl and my pink haired companion.

Yui Nekoyama, or as I call her, my little girl. She's younger than me at only nine years old. She's also got short blonde hair, though her eyes are blue. Unlike me and my pink haired companion, she isn't a magical girl. She knows all about it, but I've made it very clear on every possible occasion that she should not contract under any circumstances. I don't want her becoming a magical girl. Anyway, I met her a month ago after I rescued her from a witch that nearly killed her. She brought a grief seed home, it hatched and her parents died so she was on her own when I found her. As such, I'm looking after her and taking care of her. Her favorite color is yellow, and her favorite food is anything sweet.

The third member of our little group is named Madoka Kaname. She keeps telling me to just call her Madoka, but I've stuck with Kaname because I'm weird like that. She's the reason I'm in this city to begin with. I don't actually know much about her. She's a magical girl, like me, but that's where my knowledge of her ends. I ran into her just a few days ago and she asked me if I'd help her investigate the magical girl causing havoc in Morioh. We've had an encounter before that when she helped me out a little, so I don't have any reason not to trust her. We're at the bare minimum level where we could be considered friends. I wouldn't mind if we bump that up a bit and become actual friends as opposed to comfortable acquaintances. I don't actually know, but I'm pretty sure her favorite color is pink.

So that's the three of us, a magical girl, a young orphan and a somewhat amnesiac sort of vampire. Together we're working together to track down the magical girl who is supposedly turning various normal girls into magical girls. Why is she doing this? How is she doing this? What does she even look like? I don't know. We're here to figure all that stuff out and make sure she doesn't cause any more trouble. No, that does not automatically translate to "kill her." It's completely possible that she'll be a perfectly reasonable young woman, and that we'll have a nice conversation and wrap this up with no trouble. It's also possible for me to be the captain of a pirate ship and go pillaging on the high seas while singing a jaunty little tune, that doesn't mean it's likely to happen.

But, we can worry about that later. For now, we need to worry about finding a place to stay. We're all in agreement that we'll probably be here for a bit, so a nice place to stay is our first priority.

"I suppose just a normal hotel would be fine?" Kaname asks. "We're not looking to stay here permanently, so we don't need to actually buy a house, right?"

"Me and M- I mean Scarlet have been living in a hotel," Yui says.

"Just pay a little bit every once in a while and they leave you alone," I say. "That, or you can sneak into an empty room and use that. That option saves a lot more money for when you need important things, like food."

Kaname giggled a little at that.

"You're as bad as Kyoko," she says.

"Old friend?" I ask.

"Old friend," she confirms. "But breaking into a hotel is definitely something she'd suggest. I don't necessarily agree with it though."

"Is that so? Are we going to put that to a vote?" I ask.

"Scarlet, voting isn't fair!" Yui yells at me. "You know I'd just vote for whatever you chose to do, and that's not fair to Miss Kaname."

"Well, she's got me there," I say.

"Let's look at the closest hotel first," Kaname offers. "We can look and see how much they'd charge us to stay for a week or two and we can make a decision from there. Is that okay?"

"Fine by me," I say. "Come on Yui, let's go."

"Got it," she says, grabbing on to my hand so she doesn't accidentally get lost.

And so we found the nearest hotel, a pretty nice place if I do say so myself and looked at the prices they were offering for a three person hotel room. After gasping and rambling in shock for a few minutes, Kaname eventually regained her composure.

"H-how can one room cost so much money?" She asked once we were outside the hotel. "My monthly allowance was barely a hundredth of that. Is this town full of rich people? Is that price normal?"

I check my wallet and compare how much money I have to how much the room would have cost. Huh. I kind of figured my family was pretty well off considering how nice our house was, but I don't exactly think mom and dad would be okay with spending that kind of money. Hmmm, what would Inugami do in this situation?

"We're breaking in," I say. "I'm not paying those prices."

"I can't pay those prices," Kaname says somewhat sadly.

"So this place is going to be our home for a while?" Yui asks me.

"More like our headquarters," I tell her. "We'll be resting here, but I can't imagine we'll be spending a lot of our time here. We've got a bad guy to stop, remember?"

"Right," Yui says. "So are we going to go there now? It's getting kind of late."

"She's right," Kaname adds. "We should turn in for the night and maybe talk a little bit."

"About our plans and how we're going to work on tracking down that other magical girl?" I ask.

"Um… I was kind of hoping we could maybe just get to know each other a bit better," Kaname says with a shy smile. "We did just meet, so maybe we could learn how to work with each other a bit more?"

"Oh, like what we're each capable of?" I ask. "Like abilities and things like that. That's pretty smart too."

"N-no, I meant… Never mind," Kaname says. "That's fine, we can talk about that."

"Sure. First we need to find a good room to actually stay in," I say.

We spent a bit of time going up and down the hotel's floors, trying to find a nice empty room that would fit the three of us. It didn't take too long until we found a nice two bedroom, one bathroom hotel suite. The three of us did have some luggage we brought with us so we unpacked, and got comfortable. Kaname took her shower first, followed by me giving Yui a bath. Once the three of us were done and resting comfortably in our pajamas (Kaname had a yellow set of pjs, I had a red nightdress and Yui was wearing pajama shorts and a t-shirt with a panda bear on it. Yui likes pandas), we all sat on a bed and began the discussion.

"… Um… it's a nice night out, isn't it?" Kaname asks.

"It's a little cold out, but it's kind of nice out," Yui says.

"I don't go out often so I don't know what qualifies it being a nice night," I say.

"You know, nice and cool, but not freezing cold out," Kaname says. "Good weather for resting outside and looking at the stars."

"Is that so?" I ask.

"It is," Kaname says. "It's really relaxing."

"That sounds nice," Yui says.

"…"

The conversation stalls.

"Um… Any hobbies?" Kaname asks me.

"Yui reads a lot," I say.

"I like books," she confirms. "Reading's a great way to pass time while I wait for Scarlet to come back from witch hunting."

"You don't go with her?" Kaname asks.

"Scarlet doesn't let me," Yui says with a pout.

"Of course not," I say. "You're not a magical girl, and I'd never forgive myself if I let something bad happen to you."

"Kyubey's always around, if you would let me contrac-"

"Absolutely not," I tell her. "I can take care of myself, and I've got Patchy if I need assistance. You don't need to throw your life away so needlessly."

"Mmmm," Yui grumbles angrily.

"It sounds like you've had this conversation a lot," Kaname notices.

"I just want to become a magical girl and help Scarlet, but she won't let me," Yui pouts some more.

"Unless you have a wish you're willing to risk your life for, I have to agree with Scarlet," Kaname says. "Being a magical girl isn't something to take lightly It takes a lot of time and effort, and it never stops being a life threatening experience."

"I know but… I just want to help," Yui says.

I put a hand on Yui's head and ruffle her hair a little.

"You're doing just fine," I tell her. "You're find just being my little girl. I can take care of myself, so don't worry."

Yui gets ready to argue, but is interrupted by a yawn. I stroke her hair a little bit more and she nods off not long after. I lay her down on the bed and tuck her in.

"She really is just a child, isn't she?" Kaname asks.

"She is," I say. "That's why I don't want her being a magical girl. As long as I'm there I could keep her safe, but I'm worried about if for some reason I can't be there and she gets hurt. I don't have many people left in my life that I'm close to, I don't want to lose her."

"I think I understand what you're saying," Kaname says. "I wish I had someone I could care for like that."

"Considering they're only as close as they are because all of Scarlet's friends and family were killed and she craved some semblance of companionship, it isn't a relationship I would think many would want," Kyubey says, deciding to join us in the hotel room.

"Pleasure to see you again, cat rabbit," I say as it walks over and sits in Kaname's lap. "Anything interesting happen recently?"

"Not particularly," it replies. "I believe you three are here to deal with the influx of anomalous magical girls?"

"We are," Kaname confirms. "Is there anything you could tell us about what's going on?"

"I can't tell you anything you don't already know," Kyubey says. "A magical girl is using her powers to turn normal girls into magical girls."

"Can you tell us a little more?" I ask. "Wouldn't stopping her make things a lot easier for you guys?"

"Yes and no," Kyubey says. "While we would certainly need to do a lot less clean up regarding the families who suddenly need to deal with their daughters suddenly gaining magical abilities, the sudden appearance of unexperienced and uninformed magical girls results in many more witch transformations which greatly benefits us. Whether or not you stop her or she continues going about her business matters very little."

"Thank you for your help," I say dryly.

"Please Kyubey, can't you give us a little help?" Kaname asks. "Even something as small as a name?"

Kyubey pauses, pondering what course of action to say.

"Very well," it concedes. "I see no reason not to at least give you that information as it will not influence either party's chance of victory. The magical girl's name is Hikari Kagiyama. That would help you find her, I presume."

"Thank you very much Kyubey," Kaname says with a smile.

"If you'll excuse me, I do have other business to take care of," Kyubey says, standing up and heading for the window. "Good bye Madoka, good bye Scarlet."

"Good bye Kyubey, we appreciate the help," Kaname says.

Kyubey jumps out the window and disappears, leaving us on our own.

"Hikari Kagiyama," I roll the name around a bit. "That's who we're looking for?"

"Seems like it," Kaname says. "I've known Kyubey for a long time, and he hasn't lied to me at all in that time. Sometimes he twists words around a bit, but I don't really see how he could do that here."

"Alright, tomorrow we'll start asking around?" I ask.

"That sounds like a good idea," Kaname says. "Let's rest up, we've got a big day tomorrow."

"Right. Good night," I tell her.

"Good night!"

Since there were only two beds, Kaname got a bed to herself and I shared a bed with Yui. We all had a very relaxing night's sleep.


	2. Chapter 2: What just happened?

**Chapter 2: "What just happened?"**

The next morning I decided to make a quick phone call to explain the situation to a friend.

"Hikari Kagiyama?"

"Yes, that's her name," I say into the phone. "Anything you can tell me about her?"

"I don't know what you're expecting me to know, I don't know very many people."

"Come on Patchy, you're a knowledgable one, aren't you? Why can't you throw that knowledge around for once?"

"Because I can't use knowledge I don't have," Patchy replies. "And don't call me Patchy."

"It fits so well though," I say. "Well okay Patchy, how about this. You know a lot about magic, right?"

"It's what I'm best at, that's correct," she affirms.

"Supposedly Kagiyama can turn normal girls into magical girls. Any idea how that works?"

"Hmm… Well, considering how specific of a power that is, I can only imagine she made the wish specifically for the purpose of converting normal girls," Patchy begins. "I imagine it's something distinct from the incubators method as I can't even begin to imagine her ears growing and ripping your soul out."

"That's be a little weird," I say.

"That said, I also doubt that it's as simply as her pointing towards someone and they suddenly lost their soul. I've actually asked the incubators a bit about how the magical girl conversion works since I'm the type of person who would ask that. They wouldn't give me the specifics, for pretty obvious reasons, but they did mention that it isn't a very easy thing to do, and it requires a lot of energy. I can't begin to imagine how much energy it takes, though it certainly costs less than a witch transformation earns otherwise those efficiency obsessed rats would never do it."

"And what exactly does that mean?" I ask.

"It means that whoever Hikari is, she's probably a pretty powerful magical girl, and it'd be in your best interests to be careful with her," Patchy warns me.

"I'm pretty powerful myself," I say.

"I suppose," Patchy says. "… There is one thing I should probably mention."

"And what's that?"

"This is just a thought I had, don't take it too seriously," Patchy begins. "Couldn't it be possible that her power works both ways?"

"You mean turning a magical girl into a normal human?" I ask.

"It's just a thought, but magical girl powers can evolve with time," Patchy says. "I once ran into a magical girl whose magical girl ability slash weapon was making ribbons to use as whips, but she was eventually able to turn those ribbons into a muskets."

"But that's a magical girl weapon, not an ability, right?" I ask.

"Perhaps, but I will ask that you be careful anyway," Patchy says. "It's not an unheard of concept so do keep it in mind. Things would get pretty dangerous for you if you became a normal human and had to fight a magical girl. That's not a fight where I'd bet on you, little sister."

"I'm not your little sister," I reply.

"And I'm not made of patchwork," Patchy replies. "The difference is that you are _a_ little sister, so calling you that is actually warranted."

"Whatever. Are things okay over there?" I change the subject. "I don't need to hurry things up over here, do I?"

"No no, take your time," Patchy says. "I've got the idiot here with me to help out."

I here a faint cry of "I'm not an idiot!" from the other end.

"So as you can hear, I'm got enough back up if I need it," Patchy assures me. "Feel free to waste as much time on your honeymoon as you want."

"What's a honeymoon?" I ask.

"Oh, nothing. Do tell Yui I said hi."

"Got it. See you when I get back."

"See you then."

The call ends and I put the phone back in my pocket. My business concluded, I return to the cafe that Kaname and Yui were waiting at and join them at the table.

"Is Patchy doing okay?" Yui asks.

"Patchwork's doing just fine," I tell her. "She says hi, by the way."

"I can't wait to see her again!" Yui says. "She's lots of fun to play with."

"So what did you call her about?" Kaname asks me.

I quickly give them all the important parts. Once I finished explaining, Kaname put a hand to her chin and thought deeply about what I just said.

"Turning a magical girl into a normal human? That shouldn't be possible," Kaname says. "Kyubey always said it was an irreversible process. Could it really be possible to put their soul back in their body?"

"I don't know, but Patchy's pretty smart and trusting her has very rarely been the wrong choice," I say.

"Well, there was that one time," Yui says.

"Didn't we agree to never talk about that?" I ask.

"Y-yes," Yui says, looking at the ground.

"Huh? What happened?" Kaname asks.

"Well you see there was this squid witch and-"

My story is interrupted by my phone ringing. Considering there's only one person who actually knows my number, I don't need to make any guesses.

"Yes, Patchy?" I say as I answer the call.

"I just thought I'd let you know that I asked Kyubey about the magical girl to human thing," Patchy tells me. "As is normal for him, he didn't tell me anything about what I actually wanted to know, and danced around the question."

"So what did he say?" I ask.

"He said that the only way to turn a magical girl back into a human is if it were specifically wished for. No matter what your original ability was, it will never evolve to the point where it can pull off something like that."

"Is that so? Something to keep in mind, I suppose," I say.

"And with that in mind, I would like to point out that I think he forgot about your ability, but I can't blame him because you're the weirdo who made the wish weird enough to actually give you that," Patchy continues.

"Is that so?" I ask dryly. "Thank you Patchy."

"No problem, Little Sister."

"I'm not your little sister."

"Good bye."

And with that, Patchy hung up.

"So what'd she say?" Yui asks.

"Unless you specifically wished for it, you can't turn a magical girl into a human," I say. "So we probably don't need to worry about it."

"…" Kaname didn't seem so certain.

"What's with the silence?" I ask.

"Nothing, I suppose," she says. "Something just feels off to me."

"What do you mean?" Yui asks. "What feels off? Does something Scarlet said not seem right?"

"I don't know

"Is that so?" I ask. "Well, feel free to tell me when you figure out just what feels off. We're working together, right?"

"Right," Kaname says. She still sounds kind of unsure about this situation. I wonder why that is.

"Well, we don't have time to worry about that right now!" Yui declares. "We have to go stop her, right?"

"Right," I say. "Should we start looking?"

"Yes, we should," Kaname says. "Any idea where we could find her?"

"Well, I was thinking that we could look for a witch," I offer. "She's a magical girl, so that means she needs grief seeds. If we go witch hunting we're bound to run into her sooner or later."

"And if we find her while witch hunting then we could fight her in the witch barrier and not have anyone get hurt!" Yui says.

"We're not going to fight her, we're going to talk with her," Kaname says. "If she refuses to take proper responsibility for her magical girl abilities and insists on being violent, then we can fight her, but that's a last resort."

"If we can wrap this up without having to kill anyone that would make me feel really good about the situation," I say.

"But she's a bad guy, right?" Yui asks me. "Don't you kill bad guys all the time?"

"Doesn't mean it's something I enjoy," I reply.

"I certainly know that feeling," Kaname says, sounding rather depressed. "… Let's not think about that. Let's focus on finding Kagiyama."

Since me and Yui both agreed with that course of action, we headed out into the city to see what we could find. We walked up and down all the streets checking out all the sites. Standard stuff you'd find in most cities. An arcade, a mall, some shops, and indoor pool (I made a mental note to stay far away from that one), and the hotel we were staying out. We kept walking for several hours until we eventually came upon a park and decided to take a break. We found a bench to sit on, we got some drinks for a vending machine and took a few minutes.

"Searching is hard," Yui says.

"It'd be easier if we had a good idea where to actually look," I say. "I don't know anything about this city."

"Me neither," Kaname adds. "This is my first time in Morioh. I've heard of it, but I've never been here."

"I've never even heard of this city," Yui says sadly. "I wish I could help more."

"You're doing fine," I say as I ruffle her hair. "Nobody ever said this would be done quick and easy."

"I suppose," Yui says. "… Scarlet, is there a bathroom nearby?"

"I think I saw the public restrooms down that way," Kaname says. "Do you want me to walk you over there?"

"I can make it just fine on my own!" Yui insists.

"Would you be so kind as to escort her?" I ask Kaname. "Yui has no sense of direction. She manages to get lost in our room sometimes."

"Th-that was one time!" Yui insists. "I was stuck under the bed covers and didn't know what direction was up."

"I'll make sure she doesn't get lost," Kaname assures me.

"Scarlet, you're going to stay here?" Yui asks me.

"I'm pretty darn comfortable on this seat," I tell her. "I'll still be here when you get back."

"Okay," Yui sounds unsure.

Kaname takes Yui by the hand and starts leading her down the path to the restrooms. Once they were well on their way and well out of earshot I sighed.

"All right, how long were you planning on stalking us?" I ask.

"Oh poo, I've been found?" a girl's voice answers

"You were never hidden," I tell her. "You just kept following us around and making no attempt to hide that fact."

"Oh, true enough."

The girl that voice belonged to decided to step out from behind a tree and make herself known. She looked to be maybe 13, and she had long blue-green hair and matching eyes. She was wearing a simple red dress paired with knee-high boots. She seemed nice enough, she was smiling and seemed approachable enough.

"Feel free to take a seat," I say as I wave her over. "Plenty of room on the bench."

"Don't mind if I do," she says as she walks over and sits next to me on the bench.

"You wouldn't happen to be Hikari Kagiyama, would you?" I ask.

"That's my name!" she says happily.

"So you're a magical girl?" I ask.

Kagiyama pretends to gasp in surprise.

"You knew?! How?! I though I was being super secretive and… snkt," Kagiyama interrupts herself with a snicker. "I couldn't keep a straight face. "Yep, I'm a magical girl. I suppose you're one as well?"

"I am," I tell her.

"What brings you out all the way to Morioh?" she asks. "It's a pretty boring town. We get a lot of witches, sure, but they're all small fry who give crappy grief seeds that are barely worth the effort it took to get them."

"Could that be because you're turning innocent girls into magical girls?" I ask.

"Could be," she says with an innocent smile. "What if I was?"

"My friend and I would have to ask you to stop," I tell her.

"Why? It's not like they weren't going to contract at some point anyway," Kirayama tells me. "They would contract, become a magical girl, get mentally raped and then turn into a witch. I'm just speeding up the process when you think about it."

"So no matter what we say you wouldn't stop?" I ask.

"You'd have to force me!" she says. "I'll have you know, I'm pretty tough!"

"Is that so?" I ask. "I'm pretty sure if we were to fight I would win."

"Are you sure about that?" Kirayama asks me.

Before I can answer, Kirayama transforms into her magical girl outfit and grabs me by the throat. She lifts me up and throws me hard. I go flying through the air for a few seconds before I hit the ground and start rolling. Once I stop rolling and pull myself to my feet I notice I'm not in the park anymore. The sky is far too many different colors, the ground feels way too soft. A witch's labyrinth?

"Nice arena, isn't it?" Kirayama asks as she joins me. "It was just about to open up, so I though I'd show it to my new friends! Plus this way we don't need to worry about interruptions!"

"… Okay, we'll fight," I say. "And when I win, you'll stop turning innocent people into magical girls."

"Sure! Kirayama agrees. "And if I win… How about a hug?"

"Excuse me?" I ask.

"Yeah, you look so cute and huggable," Kirayama says. "You remind me of a doll I had when I was a little girl. So when I win, I get to hug your stuffed corpse as much as I want!"

I ignore the last part of that remark and transform into my magical girl outfit. I was very fond of my work uniform. I wear a pretty white hat, and my hair is tied up in a ponytail on the side of my head. I wear a nice red and white dress, and I have these branch like wings coming out of my back, both of which have four crystals hanging from them. One red, one yellow, one blue and one green. I don't really know why I have the wings considering I can't fly, but I like them. I was a witch once, and Patchy thinks that the wings are a holdover from that so that could be it. My weapon was pretty simple, it was just a long black spear. Nothing very fancy about it, but it is a very reliable weapon that's gotten me through some tough fights.

Anyway, now that I'm not being thrown or tossed about I can get a good look as her. She had a large ribbon in her hair, the ends of which trailed down to her shoulders. She was still wearing a red dress, but now there were white frills on the end of it, as well as a white kerchief around the neck, held in place by a small ribbon and her soul gem was pinned right in the middle. In her left hand was a large wooden bow. She's an archer, huh? That makes the third magical girl archer I've met. Are bows very common weapons?

I ready my spear and charge right at her. If I close in and keep near her she won't get a chance to use her bow. I get close to her and swing my spear, but she blocks it with her bow. An arrow appears in her free hand and she swings the pointy end at me. I lean back and narrowly avoid it. I stab at her with my spear but she uses her bow and parries my attack. She quickly notches and arrow and fires it at me, but I raise my spear and knock the arrow away. She grips an arrow almost like it's a dagger and swings it at me. I lean back once, twice, and three times to avoid her swings. I grab her wrist to stop her swing and attempt to use that chance to get a good swing in. She moves her bow into my spear's path and catches my spear with her bow. We're caught in deadlock now, me holding her hand with the arrow, and her holding my spear. Kirayama breaks the deadlock by headbutting me as hard as she can. I take a step back and she uses that opportunity to swing around and hit me with her bow. Her wooden bow breaks into splinters when it collides with my head and I'm knocked to the ground. This isn't an advantageous position for me. I negate that sequence of events and we're back in the deadlock. This time I take the advantage and kick Kirayama's knee. There's a crack as her leg bends into an awkward angle. She tries to step back, but stumbles and falls to the ground. I walk over to her side and point my spear at her throat.

"You're a dirty cheater," she says with a chuckle. "I remember smacking you with my bow, but then apparently I didn't. What was with that?"

"It's my magic," I tell her. "I can make it so that any recent event never happened."

"Wow, what a dirty little cheater," she says. "Trying to pick a fair fight with such a broken ability. Fortunately, I also like to cheat."

I feel a sharp pain in my ankle and see what looks like an arrow sticking out of it. Did she really just stab my while she was lying on the ground with a spear to her throat? Does she not care if she liv- wait, where'd my spear go? Where'd my hat go? Why am I in my casual clothes? What's going on right now?

Kirayama stands back up and dusts herself off. It seems like she pushed her magical girl restoration abilities a bit to heal up her leg quickly. She was grinning widely and spinning a shining arrow in her right hand. It looked a lot like the arrow that was in my ankle. … Except there isn't an arrow there anymore. Where did it go?

"Heh heh, cheating sure is a great way to gain a victory, isn't it?" Kirayama asks me. "Now I get to claim my victory prize."

Kirayama looks like she's about to attack me, but pauses when she notices something. The labyrinth around us begins fluctuating and slowly collapsing. The witch must have been killed. Wait, if the witch was killed… Kirayama seems to be thinking the same thing I am, because she immediately starts looking around nervously. A bolt of pink light streaks through the air and pierces through Kirayama's wrist. She briefly yelps in pain and drops the arrow she was spinning. We both look at where the arrow was coming from and see Kaname standing there in her magical girl outfit. I haven't seen her in her work outfit before. Lots of pink, it really suits her.

"The barrier is collapsing," Kaname says, arrow at the ready and bow pointed towards Kirayama. "Unless you really want to let innocent people get included, stand down now."

"Hmmm… No!"

Kirayama fires a volley of arrows at Kaname, who responds with arrows of her own. Some of the arrows collide with each other and disappear, while others keep flying. Just as some of the arrows are about to collide with either side, they catch the arrows out of the air, set them up in the bow and fire. Both sides kept firing arrow after arrow at each other until finally the labyrinth collapses around us and returns us to the park. Kaname and Kirayama both had an arrow ready to fire and point at each other. Neither fired though, they just stared at each other down the shafts of their arrows. Kirayama was the first to break, lowering her bow and transforming back to her civilian attire. She turns around and starts walking away.

"I'll call it a draw!" she yells as she looks at me over her shoulder. "I keep doing what I'm doing, but you're not a huggable corpse. See you next time!"

"… What just happened?" I ask.

"Scarlet, is everything okay?" Kaname asks me.

"I think so," I say. "W-wait, where's Yui?"

"Scarlet!" Yui cries out as she runs up to me and gets me in a tackling hug. "Scarlet, are you okay?"

"I'm okay Yui, I'm just fine," I tell her as I hug her back.

"Scarlet, was that-"

"Yep, that was Miss Kirayama," I say. "I didn't mean to fight her, it just kind of happened."

"Don't do that!" Yui yells at me. "You can't do anything as dangerous as that on your own!"

"I know, I'll be more careful in the future," I assure her.

"Scarlet, you feel a bit different," Kaname says. "Wait… Are you-"

"Let me check," I say. I focus really, really hard, but no matter how hard or how long I focus, nothing seems to happen. "Right so… um… Guess I'm not a magical girl at the moment."

"What?!" Yui exclaims, breaking off the hug and looking at me in shock.

"Y-you're… really?" Kaname asks. "How?"

"Tell you the details in a minute," I say as I pull my phone out of my pocket and call the only number I have. "Hey, Patchy?"

"Yes, little sister?"

"You said it was okay for me to take my time in this city, right?"

"I did, why do you ask?"

I reach down and pick an arrow off the ground. Looks like the arrow Kirayama stabbed me with. It's still here? I thought it would have disappeared after a bit, or after the transformed out of her work uniform.

"Yeah, I might be in this city for a bit longer than originally planned."


End file.
